How to Make the Entry Hall Comfortable and Stylish: Valuable Tips from an Architect

The entry hall is actually the main room in the house. This space is the primary one where you receive guests. It's from here that the feeling of the rest of your living space begins. Since the entry hall makes the first impression of your home, it's important to pay special attention to its layout, arrangement, and decoration.

Eugene Koblov, Architect-Designer with 20 years of experience in design development, author's supervision, and implementation of over 130 projects

Size of the Entry Hall

Most apartments in modern new buildings are delivered with flexible layouts. Residents themselves determine the size of the entrance area. How does this usually happen? Usually, homeowners base their decision on the number of residents in the house. But for some reason, they forget to model the situation when guests come over.

For example, let's take a typical couple living in an apartment with a small entry hall, where two people have just enough space. Imagine that in the evening, guests arrive — also a couple, or perhaps they're picking up parents at the airport and bringing them home.

In these situations, there are at least four people in the entry hall at once. Is it comfortable for everyone to take off their coats, remove shoes, put things down without touching anything or getting dirty? A fascinating question. And we haven't even mentioned that you might buy a refrigerator or order furniture delivery, and so on. Often, entry halls are so small that the task of bringing in bulky items becomes a real quest.

It's important that this space is stylish and functional. This means that such a small and seemingly insignificant room requires a deep and professional approach to ergonomic planning and design.

I recommend happy owners of apartments with flexible layouts or homeowners to not skimp on space for the entry hall. As practice shows, life scenarios can be very different, so extra square meters won't be a waste.

How to Visually Expand the Entry Hall

If the apartment comes with a ready layout, it's better to decorate the doorways leading into the entry hall as wardrobes. This affordable solution allows you to quickly and easily add space to a compact entry hall.

A visually cramped entrance area will seem more spacious if your view doesn't end at a solid door but instead extends into the corridor or catches on a fragment of the living room visible through the doorway.

Color can also help add air to the space. For example, light shades have excellent light-reflecting properties, making the room appear slightly larger.

Additionally, glossy and mirror surfaces will support this effect. A mirror in the entry hall is necessary regardless of its size, to check yourself in full length before leaving.

Another convenient tool for working with spatial perception is light. There should be plenty of it in the entry hall. First, lighting adds warmth. Second, it increases comfort in its use. Third, a room well-lit with light, where all corners are illuminated, seems slightly larger.

Besides the main lighting scenario with bright light, adding soft ambient lighting will make using the space even more comfortable at night. For example, when you need to walk through the entry hall and corridor to another room without waking up other household members with bright light.

Functionality of the Entry Hall

In my projects, I recommend clients to install a guest bathroom in the entry hall area if the layout and plumbing scheme allow it. This is convenient primarily for homeowners, as their main private bathroom remains hidden from guests, preserving privacy.

For flooring in the entry hall, I recommend ceramic granite or marble. These materials blend well with any design and last longer than wood. Wooden floors in the entry hall wear out quickly due to moisture, sand, dirt, and particles from road surfaces on shoes, so they lose their appearance fast and require replacement.

I also always strongly recommend clients to install a heated floor in the entry hall, because it's endlessly convenient. Simply removing wet shoes and leaving them on the floor in the morning, you can put on dry and comfortable shoes right away.

If you're limited in funds or space and don't have the ability to create a large warm area, then at least provide a local one. Areas measuring 40x80 cm will be quite enough to dry three or four pairs of shoes. Even such a small detail significantly improves the quality of life and satisfaction with your living space.

Cover design: Tatiana Petrova